Mod Idea - Full Fleet Mod
 

Right then, with SEV being just around the corner (sort of) I decided that now would be a great time to muck around with a new mod idea. Or more accurately it just popped into my head while I was staring at German vineyards.

Anway here's the plan: Replace ship construction with four branching trees. Say (names subject to improvement)
Ships of the line
Escorts
Carriers
Support Vessels

From which you research the ship hulls and various mounts/equipment you will need. So from Escorts you would get Frigate, Destroyer and Corvette as new techs to research with multiple levels. So Destroyers might go:

Level 1 - Destroyer
Level 2 - Heavy Destroyer (armour mounts, more tonnage)
Level 3 - Escort Destroyer (cheap, maintenance bonus)

To stop everyone racing for ships of the line then Dreadnought those would be very expensive technologies. There would also be bonuses for the smaller hulls.

Frigates with inhull sensors
PD lowered everywhere except when in mounts on Destroyer hulls
Inhull cloaking for Light Cruisers
Heavy Cruisers with loads of armour and good guns
Fast Battlecruisers with Battleship level mounts/firepower but less well protected


The problem as I see it is that the AI wouldn't stand a chance if, as I want from the Mod, a player needs a full fleet to cover all the options. Destroyers for anti-missile/fighter, Frigates to spot cloaks, etc. So it would have to be a humans only Mod (I think)

Anyone interested or done anything similar?

Re: Mod Idea - Full Fleet Mod
 

Carrier Battles Mod.

The mod is based around SE4's abilities, rather than any sort of real-world equivalent.

There are basically two classes of ship:
- Carriers
- Support Warships

Carriers are the best way to get fighters to the battle. They have a cost/size reduction mount for fighter bays, and are big enough to hold lots of fighters.

Support Ships are low maintenace, and have few restrictions on design (though fighter bays are very expensive to try to fit in)

Shields and armor are leaky.
Point Defense as you know it is non-existent.
Direct fire weapons have typical ranges from 1-4, missiles are SE3 style, and never fizzle out.

Shielded ships are mostly immune to small arms because of the leaky shield effect. Missiles (double/quad damage to shields) and very large calibre weapon hits are required to breach the shields and do significant damage.

Direct fire weapons are capable of hitting missiles, however due to their short range, it is very dangerous for capital ships.
Fighters on the other hand, make great missile interceptors, and losing them to missile hits is not as damaging to your fleet.
Fighters also make excellent bombers when loaded with external-mount CSMs or slow reloading heavy cannons.
And for killing fighters, fighters with high damage ratio guns are good http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

The support ships are good for a number of roles. Missile bombardment, for one. Unless the enemy has an overwhelming number of interceptors, some will get through. (Especially if fired from multiple angles in a pincer attack)
Support ships with relatively heaving shielding will be mostly immune to non-bombers, so they can also provide a excellent direct-fire support in dogfights.
Any number of supply and transport roles are also filled by these ships.

Re: Mod Idea - Full Fleet Mod
 

Is that carrier battles-mod AI friendly?

Is it out yet?